Blended Families, “Usness,” and the Power of Humility w/ Ron Deal

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Aaron & Jennifer Smith

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5 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today’s episode, Aaron chats with Ron Deal, licensed marriage and family therapist, author, and speaker, who specializes in blended families and stepfamily dynamics. Together they explore the unique challenges and opportunities within blended families. With over 30 years in family ministry, Ron shares wisdom on how humility, emotional regulation, and a shared sense of "usness" can transform marriages. He unpacks how neuroscience supports biblical truths about relationships and encourages the church to better support couples in every season.

Key Takeaways:

Blended families need intentional care and support.
The church must invest in stronger marriage ministries.
Emotional dysregulation often fuels conflict cycles.
Humility is a pathway to healing and unity.
“Usness” strengthens a couple’s shared identity.
Neuroscience affirms biblical principles of connection.
Awareness can help couples rewrite their conflict patterns.
Relationship struggles can deepen our dependence on God.

Connect with Ron Deal

Website: https://rondeal.org/
Reactive Coping Style Assessment: https://rondeal.org/reactivecopingstyle
Podcast: FamilyLife Blended Podcast

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Keywords: blended families, marriage ministry, spiritual growth, conflict, humility, usness, neuroscience, discipleship, church support

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, marriage after God, friends. Thank you for your continued faithfulness in listening each and every week.
0:04.2	Jennifer and I have often shared with you about how important prayer is in the life of a believer.
0:07.6	It's so important, in fact, that we're told this in First Thessalonians.
0:11.2	Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus for you.
0:18.5	It is God's will for us to pray, and we want to inspire you to begin
0:21.1	praying for your spouse and marriage every day. This world hates marriage, and so does our enemy,
0:26.1	because he knows the power that your marriage is meant to have in this world. He knows that if you
0:29.7	and your spouse are praying and chasing boldly after God together, that the impact Christ
0:33.6	will have in and through you will be powerful. So we need to be praying more than ever before.
0:38.0	Our heart is to encourage you along with everyone who listens to this show to be praying for your
0:41.1	spouses and your marriages, to be strengthened, renewed, healed, prepared and empowered to do the
0:46.4	ministry that God has for you to do in this world together. So Jennifer and I would love to invite you
0:51.0	to join the thousands of other couples and taking our 31-day marriage prayer challenge. This is a completely free and fun way to build a habit of prayer in your
0:59.4	marriage. All you have to do to join is visit marriage prayerchallenge.com and fill out the registration form.
1:05.2	Once you do that, you will begin to receive an email every day from us during the 31 days
1:09.2	to not only remind you to pray for your
1:11.2	spouse, but we'll also give you various topics and prompts to help you know what to pray for.
1:15.3	We dare your marriage to start praying like never before. Start the challenge today at
1:20.1	marriage prayer challenge.com. We're looking for people who have been blessed by this free
1:24.2	podcast and our free daily marriage prayer emails and who want to help be a
1:27.9	blessing to others. Creating and hosting this podcast and sending out our daily emails do incur
1:32.3	financial cost, and we want to invite you to join our faithful patron team to help financially
	...

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